In recent years, laparoscopic surgery has been used in increasingly numerous and complex applications. Unfortunately, laparoscopic techniques require the surgeon to obtain a great deal of training and practice prior to performing laparoscopic surgery upon a human patient. At present, surgeons experience significant difficulty during training for laparoscopic techniques. The current method for surgical training often involves the use of pigs with an elaborate operating room set-up requiring considerable personnel. Additionally the procedure necessitates placing live animals under anesthesia. Typically, two laboratory technicians are needed; one to maintain the animal under proper anesthesia and the other to provide assistance with the surgical equipment. In addition, in a typical laparoscopic training session, at least three surgeons are needed to assist with the equipment and to operate a telescopic video camera that is inserted into the patient.
Unfortunately, such training sessions are expensive and time-consuming while providing only a short period of practice time for each of the surgeons involved. To date, there is no satisfactory means to obtain extensive, non-operative experience in handling laparoscopic instruments and performing surgical techniques such as the dissection of tissue planes, knot tying and suturing without a supply of animals and operating equipment and personnel as described above.
Although laparoscopic training devices do exist, the current simulators are less than satisfactory. Typically, these devices consist of a rigid box having numerous ports to allow observation, passage of instruments and a video telescope. Small pieces or meat or synthetic organ models are placed within these devices and can serve as surgical models upon which the surgeon can practice simple techniques such as knot tying, grasping and cutting. Although such devices eliminated the need to practice laparoscopic techniques in the operating room environment, they tend to be overly cumbersome while providing a less than satisfactory surgical simulation. Additionally, such devices severely limit the size of the surgical field within which the surgeon may practice.